AB0379 EVALUATION OF BODY COMPOSITION IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS PATIENTS WITH HIGH CUMULATIVE INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITY.
Authors: A. Garcia Studer, F. Ortiz-Márquez, R. Redondo, C. M. Romero-Barco, S. Manrique Arija, N. Mena-Vázquez
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2023)

<h3>Background</h3> Previous studies have reported a higher prevalence of sarcopenia in patients with systemic diseases. Thus, it is believed that the inflammation may contribute to the onset of sarcopenia. <h3>Objectives</h3> To study whether there is an association between high sustained inflammatory activity and with a major frequency of sarcopenia and others alterations in body composition in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. <h3>Methods</h3> We conducted a controlled cross-sectional observational study of a prospective cohort of RA patients. The cases were RA patients with mean moderate-high inflammatory activity during the disease course who were selected to start first biologic treatment. The controls were subjects without inflammatory disease, matched for sex and age with cases. All patients were recruited consecutively from a rheumatology clinic. Body composition was measured using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. The main variables were sarcopenia (RSMI &lt;5.5 kg/m<sup>2</sup> for women and &lt;7.26 kg/m<sup>2</sup> for men), fat mass (Kg) and body mass index (BMI). Other variables included average inflammatory activity by DAS28-ESR since diagnosis, epidemiological characteristics, lifestyles (physical activity and adherence to the Mediterranean diet), comorbidities and treatment. Statistical analysis included descriptive analysis, bivariate and two models of multivariate analysis. <h3>Results</h3> A total of 62 subjects were included, 32 with RA and 32 healthy controls. Most of them were female (84.4%) with a mean (DS) age of 57.1 (10.8) years. The main baseline characteristics of subjects are shown in Table 1. Compared with controls, RA patients had higher prevalence of sarcopenia (7 [21.9%] vs 2 [6.3%]; p=0.074), a higher mean (DS) of fat mass (31.8 [7.4] vs 27.1 [13.8]; p=0.129) and BMI (28.0 [5.2] vs 26.6 [4.4]; p = 0.278). The RA patients with sarcopenia, compared with the other RA patients, had a higher frequency of erosions (85.7% vs 32.0%; p=0.011), dyslipidemia (71.4% vs 16%; p =0.100), higher mean (DS) of age (64.8 [10.2] vs 55.9 [10.3]; p = 0.021), DAS28-ESR (4.5 [0.7] vs 3.7 [0.8]; p = 0.031), average of DAS28-ESR (1.6 [0.3] vs 1.0 [0.5]; p = 0.024) and ESR (33.0 [18.1] vs 15.8 [10.7]; p = 0.003). The multivariate analysis showed the factors associated independently with sarcopenia in RA patients were age (OR [CI 95%], 1.125 [1.002-1.262]; p=0.045), and the average of DAS28-ESR (OR [CI 95%], 2.761 [1.843-10.430]; p=0.048) (R2= 0.173). <h3>Conclusion</h3> Our preliminary data show a significant trend to a higher prevalence of sarcopenia in RA patients with moderate to high inflammatory activity. In addition, RA patients with sarcopenia have higher mean of age and inflammatory activity, compared to the rest of the patients. <h3>Acknowledgements</h3> This work was supported by FIS Grant PI22/01207 (Instituto Carlos III, Fondos FEDER). <h3>Disclosure of Interests</h3> None Declared.